Every parent wants the best for their child and wants to see them grow into happy, well-adjusted, engaged and fulfilled adults.
The foundation for a promising future starts from the day they are born with the choice of childcare playing a foundational role in their lifelong success.
The simple fact is - high quality childcare matters for a child’s healthy development.
There’s a large body of evidence that demonstrates the positive link between the quality of childcare and a variety of positive outcomes for children as they progress through life.
For example, research done by the University of Melbourne found that children who attended preschool were up to five months ahead of their peers in critical disciplines midway through primary school. Another recent study demonstrated that high-quality early care increased children’s school readiness and that sustained access (ie several years) to early education was critical in predicting long-term outcomes.
The study found that the children’s learning was boosted because of rich and diverse experiences provided in the classrooms and that success depended on the children having many different opportunities to play and engage in hands-on exploration.
Researchers have established that higher quality childcare is associated with:
A child’s brain grows and develops rapidly during the early years. It doubles in size in the child’s first year, grows to around 80% of adult size by the age of three and is nearly full-grown (90%) by the time the child is five years old.
Brain development is based on the child’s experiences and there is no doubt that children who come from loving, stimulating and nurturing homes and who attend high-quality childcare and early education centres are more likely to have positive experiences. These put in place essential building blocks for the development of a range of cognitive, emotional, social and physical skills and enable immature brains to develop to the fullest.
Not all childcare centres are the same - and even those that purport to provide high quality care can vary significantly in their offering.
If you want the best possible start for your child, here are some of the essential ‘must-haves’ of a high-quality childcare centre:
At Evoke Early Learning, our centres are inspired by the globally acclaimed Reggio Emilia philosophy. It’s a proven child-centric educational approach which encompasses all of the above components in the 12 Reggio Emilia principles.
Childcare plays a valuable and important role in a child’s healthy growth and development.
The benefits of quality childcare are significant and include better intellectual, social and emotional development. Positive experiences in childcare also enhance a child’s readiness for school and are likely to result in greater independence, resilience, awareness and confidence.
If you’re considering childcare options in Perth for your little one, we warmly invite you to book a tour of one of our Evoke Early Learning childcare centres in Clayton or Albert Park and experience our unique brand of high-quality childcare for children aged from 0 - 5 years. We look forward to meeting you!
Did you know that there can be significant advantages to a child learning a second language at an early age?
Learning a foreign language opens up a world of cognitive and social benefits for a child which can continue throughout their lives. And while many adults may struggle to grasp a new language, it’s surprisingly easy for young children.
The benefits to bilingual children include:
Children’s brains are at their most flexible between the ages of 0-5 and up until the age of eight, their ear and speech muscles are at their most flexible too, making the early years an ideal time for them to learn a second language.
Young children are also like sponges, soaking up information and mimicking what they see and hear. This cognitive flexibility and the ability to absorb new information subconsciously is the perfect platform for young children to master a language other than their mother tongue.
And this isn’t just hearsay. There is plenty of science behind early bilingual education for children, including a study by the Cornell Language Acquisition Lab (CLAL) which revealed that children who learned a second language maintained focus better than monolingual children in the face of external distractions. This ability to ‘tune out’ is a really important skill and can be a significant contributor to children’s academic achievement.
Another reason why young children pick up a second language so easily is that they aren’t hindered by the fear of making a mistake or mispronouncing words in the way that an older child or adult might be. They learn with impunity.
Let’s look at the direct correlation of learning a second language at an early age and a child’s all-round healthy growth and development.
When a young child is learning multiple languages, these ‘compete’ for attention within a child’s brain. The child’s brain has to learn to resolve this internal conflict, switch from one language to another, learn how to prioritise information and ignore distractions. By exercising the part of the brain that is responsible for selective cognitive processes, the child is able to improve their ability to focus and concentrate - even when there’s lots of stimuli going on around them.
Cognitive skills are the core skills that your brain uses to think, read, learn, remember, reason and pay attention. Cognitive development is vital for a child’s academic achievement which is why learning a second language can be beneficial. It helps boost their memory, concentration and listening skills, while also improving their ability to multitask, plan, think critically and solve complex problems.
When a child is exposed to another language, they’re also introduced to a different culture. This helps them to see the world from different perspectives and instils a more positive, more tolerant and more empathetic approach to our diverse society.
Children are born with an innate sense of curiosity and learning another language opens up a world of opportunity for them to explore and discover new things about the world they’re in. You might be interested in this article on the Reggio Emilia educational philosophy which discusses how this approach nurtures and feeds this natural desire to learn.
Foreign language learning also increases a young child’s creativity and ability to solve problems. When they’re learning a new language - or trying to master a number of languages simultaneously - their brains experience a constant workout.
If you’re a single language home, don’t think that your young child can’t become bilingual. It is very possible for children to learn an additional language outside of the home as long as they are given plenty of support and encouragement and have frequent opportunities to engage with, and experience, the language being learnt.
While it’s never too late to learn a new language, the earlier someone starts, the better.
All the extra work that the young brain does to learn a new language has benefits far beyond just linguistic ability. Learning a new language helps with all-round cognitive and social development which is why it can put your child at a significant advantage in the critical early years as well as later on in life. If you’re looking for high-quality early education for your little one which focuses on promoting knowledge and inspiring a life-long love of learning in a safe and nurturing environment, we invite you to have a chat with our friendly team or book a tour of one of our Evoke Early Learning childcare centres in Clayton or Albert Park.
Every child has an innate sense of curiosity. They’re born with it. Curiosity is what drives their desire to discover the world around them, to make sense of the uncertain and to learn and to grow. And parents can play a really important role and supporting their children in their enquiries and explorations.
By fostering a child’s intellectual curiosity, we nurture the joy of discovery.
So how can parents help nurture this natural instinct? What can we do to encourage and strengthen the child’s desire to solve life’s everyday mysteries? How can we help instil a love of learning that endures before school, through school and beyond?
Yes, this can be challenging because kids ask A LOT of questions (some studies show that four-year-olds can ask up to 300 questions a day!), but questions are at the heart of discovery, so parents need to feed their child’s inquisitive desire.
Our job is to help children learn how to ask more questions as opposed to simply providing answers. Children practice their investigative skills by asking questions, so when you’re answering one of their questions, try to phrase your responses in ways that prompt further query and discovery. While there are obviously questions that require definitive answers (“what time is supper?”), your answers should lead to them asking further questions so that they learn to persevere to find answers or solutions.
Be curious yourself. Children learn by watching and mirroring your behaviour and your responses, so show your enthusiasm for the world around you and demonstrate how you use all of your senses to find answers or information.
It’s really important to show genuine interest in a child’s questions and not to simply fob them off or diminish them. Curiosity drives self-directed learning and by celebrating the child’s questioning, we can encourage a lifelong love of learning.
Let your child hear you express your own musings about the world by asking questions with words like ‘I wonder who, what, when, where, why and how’.
Adults naturally want to smooth the child’s passage through life and show them what to do and what not to do. Of course, there are situations where this approach is necessary, but it’s also really important to resist the urge to demonstrate and to rather let the child make mistakes. They learn by doing. Taking risks is an expression of their curiosity and provided that the path of discovery doesn’t put them in any danger, parents should let them simply ‘be’.
Take your children to as many different places as possible - the beach, the airport, the bakery, the train station, the museum, even a visit to your local park can be a voyage of discovery. Think fallen leaves (‘why do you think these leaves are on the ground?’), insects hiding behind a piece of bark (‘what do you think the insect is doing there?’), the wonder of sunlight streaming through foliage and so on.
Go camping, fishing and swimming together. Go on outings to the zoo, to a petting farm, horse stables, you can go just about anywhere and discover new things together by using all of your senses.
Bake cookies together. Plant seeds. Water the garden. Sweep leaves. Go for a walk in the neighbourhood. Wash the dog. Get messy with mud. Shared activities are a great way to encourage them to explore new areas of enquiry and knowledge. Something as simple as involving children in preparing lunch helps them explore and experiment. Find out more here: "Teaching Children about Nutrition"
Bringing something novel to an everyday event (putting music on during a meal or putting food colouring in the mashed potato) or mixing up a daily routine can stimulate their minds in a fun and positive way.
A cardboard box, a cup of water and some sand, a piece of string and some toilet roll inners can all be prompts for children to experiment and use their imaginations to explore different avenues for play. This article on how play-based learning benefits children is a helpful read for parents.
Encouraging curiosity in children will set them on a path to become engaged, happier, more resourceful and more fulfilled adults. It sets them on a path of a lifelong love of learning and as parents, this is one of the greatest gifts we can hope to give our children. Our play-based environment at Evoke Early Learning builds our little learners’ confidence, creativity and curiosity and energises them to explore and discover the world around them. We have several centres across Victoria, and we would welcome an opportunity to introduce our safe, happy and nurturing environment to you. You’re welcome to book a tour of one of our Evoke Early Learning childcare centres in Clayton or Albert Park.
If your child already attends a childcare centre or if you’re planning to enrol them in the future, then you may have come across the Australian Government’s Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF).
If you’re interested in finding out more about it, this article takes a look at the EYLF and the key role it plays in your child’s growth and development.
Early childhood is a critical foundation period for a child to start establishing a positive self-esteem, resilience and a capacity to learn and it is during this time that the wheels are set in motion for a child’s lifelong success in areas such as health, education and employment.
The EYLF was developed by the Council of Australian Government as part of its reforms to early childhood education on the back of overwhelming evidence to support the above ie. that quality care and learning experiences in a child’s early years lead to better outcomes later in life. Its vision is for all children to experience play-based learning that is engaged and which builds success for life.
The five learning outcomes that the framework support are:
Although the EYLF is a requirement in all early childhood education and care settings across the country, it wasn’t developed as a rigid blueprint. Instead, it offers a holistic guide to support educators and caregivers to develop quality programmes and environments.
It’s essentially a way of ensuring that children aged 0-5 in all early childhood education and care settings across Australia experience quality teaching and learning.
The Evoke Early Learning Centres philosophy, applies the principles of the EYLF into our daily curriculum to support the children’s natural curiosity and desire to discover their world and to instil positive lifelong habits.
The EYLF describes childhood as a time of belonging, being and becoming.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these pillars and how the early education experience impacts on them.
The key to belonging is relationships.
A child needs to feel a sense of belonging and of acceptance. This emotional support comes from their relationships with their family, other caregivers, their culture and their community and when children feel welcome, nurtured and loved in a safe, secure space, they become more engaged learners.
When a child is valued and ‘seen’, that sense of belonging is strengthened and they are more likely to explore new ideas and try new things.
Belonging makes it possible for young children to ‘be’ and ‘become’.
The EYLF recognises the child’s right to be who they are, with the freedom to explore, discover and find meaning in the world around them and also within themselves. In order to help little people to start developing a sense of self, early childhood environments need to show them that they are truly valued. Letting a child simply ‘be’ shows respect and love and gives them the affirmation they need.
The EYLF acknowledges that children learn and grow through their experiences. They start to form their sense of identify from a very young age and the type of experiences they have shape the type of adult they will become.
Childcare and early education environments need to provide a platform for positive experiences where children feel loved, valued and respected. They’ll feel more confident and secure and will have a better chance of growing into well-adjusted adults with a strong sense of identity.
The structure of the framework has three key elements, namely Principles, Practices and Learning Outcomes (which were outlined at the beginning of this article).
These help educators to create curricula and environments that build on each child’s unique interests and abilities and guide their interactions with the children, their families and the community.
The practices outlined in the EYLF describe the most effective way for early childhood professionals to work with children and their families to promote learning and to progress towards the stated outcomes. These eight practices are:
Our high-quality educational programmes at Evoke Early Learning integrate the ELYF as well as other proven strategies into daily life at our centres to give the children in our care the very best start in life. You can learn more about our curriculum here. We welcome you to book a tour of our early learning centres in Clayton or Albert Park to experience how passionate we are that our children feel supported to ‘belong, be and become.’
We would love to show you around one of our Evoke Early Learning centres so why not book a tour of one of our Evoke Early Learning childcare centres in Clayton or Albert Park?
The well-known poem, ‘100 Languages of Children’ penned by Loris Malaguzzi, founder of Reggio Emilia, encapsulates what this acclaimed approach to early education represents.
‘The child has
A hundred languages
A hundred hands
A hundred thoughts
A hundred ways of thinking
Of playing, of speaking.’
Malaguzzi believed that every child is a competent, capable and creative thinker with infinite potential. The child’s innate curiosity and wonder drives their desire to discover the world
He believed that children expressed themselves creatively in a multitude of ways and that there were infinite possibilities for them to communicate and learn.
But his poem isn’t about a child’s verbal language skills.
The ‘100 languages’ are symbolic of the multi-faceted ways that children depict their understanding of the world. The possibilities are endless. Drawing, painting, writing, sculpting, building, climbing, dancing, singing, pretend playing, crying, imagining and laughing are all examples of ‘languages’ of self-expression which children use on their wondrous voyages of discovery.
In Reggio Emilia, each of these modes of expression is valued and nurtured. As children play and explore ideas, their various ‘languages’ intersect and integrate, building a deeper understanding of the world.
‘They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine’
Who exactly are ‘they’?
To understand this verse, we need to look at how traditional or mainstream schools differ from those that are inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach to education.
Traditional education methods follow a fixed curriculum which has set outcomes. Children learn by rote and by instruction from the teacher and the whole class often participates in the same activity at the same time.
In Reggio Emilia philosophy-inspired environments however, children are in charge of their own learning and topics emerge according to the things that interest the individual child. There’s no set curriculum with expectations for completion. The learning is child-directed as opposed to teacher-led and the curriculum is co-constructed by the child’s teachers, family, community and their environment.
There are no time limits for activities and the child’s knowledge journey is open-ended.
The poem suggests that traditional early learning schools are the perpetrators, restricting the child’s opportunities for discovery and self-expression because of their rigid methods of instruction.
The poem also points a finger at what it refers to as ‘the culture’ which may allude to the adults in a child’s life who don’t acknowledge the child’s capabilities for self-directed learning.
You can read the full poem here.
Exploration through play is at the heart of every Reggio-inspired environment where children are encouraged to creatively express their learning in multiple ways of playing, thinking, exploring, speaking and doing.
In Reggio-inspired early learning schools such as ours, children are encouraged to explore their natural curiosity in open-ended ways that stimulate their unique development journey. The educational programme in our safe, nurturing, non-judgemental and inclusive environment allows each child to learn at a pace and style that best suits their individual needs. If you’d like to discover more about Evoke Early Learning or our centres in Albert Park or Clayton, we welcome you to get in touch with us or book a tour. We pride ourselves on providing caring, nurturing and supportive environments for children and families and we’d love to meet you.
Understandably, you want to give your child the best start in life. And with overwhelming evidence pointing to quality early education as a crucial foundation for future success, choosing a child care centre could be one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make.
You’ll find that while child care centres may look similar on paper, they can actually be quite different in terms of how they operate, what they offer and how they go about their daily routine.
The very best way to research various options and find a preference is to book a tour and visit the centre in person.
This article outlines key things you should look out for when you’re doing a tour and gives some suggested questions to ask. The centre will be taking care of your very precious cargo and setting them on a path for strong and healthy development, so you need to be completely happy and comfortable about where you enrol your child.
Ahead of your tour, it’s a good idea to jot down the things that you want from a childcare centre so that you can run through your checklist while you’re there. For example, you may want a certain child to teacher ratio, extended hours and aftercare or a specific educational approach eg Montessori or Reggio Emilia.
Ideally, you want to book your tour during school hours so you can get a good sense of the ‘feel’ and mood of the centre, how it operates and the interactions between the children and the staff. Is it a loving and nurturing environment? Do the children look happy and busy?
Trust your instincts, treat the tour as an interview and don’t be afraid to ask the tough questions.
Day care and early education centres vary significantly in size, from small groups run in private homes to larger purpose-built facilities operated by commercial operators with multiple properties. A tour will reveal whether you share the same values as the centre and whether it will match your child’s needs and your expectations.
The indoor and outdoor spaces of a child care centre tell an important story about the centre. Look at the resources available, whether there are different spaces set up for various activities, the amount of natural light and the overall cleanliness of the place.
Your tour will give you a good sense of the staff:child ratio, plus you should ask about the qualifications and experience of the team who will be caring for your child.
On your tour, look at what the children are doing. Are they all involved in the same activity or are there a whole lot of different things on the go? How do the child’s activities, the physical environment, resources and the educators combine to support each little person’s unique creativity, curiosity and wellbeing? Is their work on display anywhere? Ask about the daily curriculum and how the children are prepared for the transition to ‘big’ school.
During your tour, you should also discuss the following:
There are also practical considerations to discuss such as operating hours, after care services, the process when a child is unwell etc.
There are lots of ways you can research different child care centres, such as browsing their website, asking friends for recommendations and reading reviews and testimonials, but the very best way to get reliable information is by actually visiting the centre and forming your own opinion from your first-hand experience. At Evoke Early Learning, we always recommend that prospective parents book a tour of our early learning centres so that they can see our philosophy and approach in action and make an informed decision. We would love to show you our caring, nurturing and supportive environments and welcome you to make a booking directly with our Albert Park or our Clayton child care centre. Look forward to meeting you!
Starting school can be stressful for young children. It can be a time of great excitement and anticipation, but it can also be a time of change and uncertainty. The stronger the child’s sense of self, the more likely they are to make a successful transition to this next stage.
It’s natural for a parent to want their child to be confident and have a healthy self-esteem before setting off for kindergarten or early school. After all, when children believe in themselves and feel worthwhile, they’re more likely to face the unknown, try new things, be happy and succeed.
A child’s cognitive, emotional and social development can also be linked to their sense of self. The more they trust in their own capabilities, the greater their ability to tackle new challenges. They’re also more likely to do things they may not necessarily be good at because they can face challenges without fear.
And when things don’t turn out as planned, a child with a healthy self-confidence is more likely to bounce back, try again, learn new skills and grow through the process.
A healthy self-esteem can be a key determinant of educational success, but it’s not an inborn trait and nor does it happen by chance. The good news is that there are lots of things that parents can do to help their child strengthen their self-belief and their self-worth ahead of starting early school.
Children are like sponges, constantly absorbing information and learning by their experiences. They learn from the way people respond to them and to one another, and all these interactions shape their sense of self.
Parents are a child’s first teacher and they can have a profound influence on building a child’s self-confidence.
Praise is different from encouragement. Repetitive praise won’t miraculously turn a shy or insecure child into a confident self-believer and in fact, too much praise can actually put undue pressure on a child. Yes, positive reinforcement is vital, but a child will become more self-assured when they accomplish things on their own.
A child will mirror adult behaviour, so parents need to be strong and positive role models. They’ll take their cues from how you interact with others, how you respond to situations, how you communicate and the body language you display.
One-on-one time is an excellent opportunity to make your child feel secure and to build their self-esteem. Positive relationships will help a child feel safe, supported and encouraged and through play, they’ll be more likely to develop constructive feelings about themselves, their abilities and their place in the world.
Let the child direct the activity while you play a supporting role, encouraging and acknowledging their effort and affirming positive behaviour. This can help them in social settings in early school with concepts like sharing, taking turns, listening and patience.
Children thrive on predictability and boundaries and having daily routines at home will help your child adjust to the structures of early school. You can establish routines such as a bedtime process involving putting away toys, having bath, putting on pyjamas, brushing teeth and reading a book.
A child who feels their contribution is valued will grow in confidence. You can help them feel useful by giving them small tasks (setting the table, feeding the dog etc). They’ll feel proud and successful when they accomplish something on their own. Giving them responsibilities is also really important in helping to develop skills such as problem-solving, which will ease their transition to early school and set them up for success.
By encouraging independence, you can help your child become a self-achiever.
We want the best for our children and we have a responsibility to help them succeed.
Luckily, there are plenty of things parents can do to help a child feel good about themselves before they start their big adventure of early school. Teaching them to love and believe in themselves will provide a strong foundation for success, but it doesn’t have to stop once your little one walks through the school doors. Choosing an early school which places high value on building confident children can have lifelong benefits. If you’re looking for child care in Clayton or Albert Park, we would love to show you around one of our Evoke Early Learning centres. Why not book a tour of one of our Evoke Early Learning childcare centres in Clayton or Albert Park? You can come and see how our nurturing approach promotes knowledge and inspires a lifelong love of learning and where developing our children’s self-confidence, resilience, responsibility, teamwork and problem-solving skills is a daily priority. We look forward to meeting you and your little one!
The Italian founder of the Reggio Emilia approach to early education, Loris Malaguzzi, penned a poem called ‘The 100 Languages of Children’ which has become synonymous with his innovative, inclusive child-centred pedagogy.
But what does he mean by a child having 100 languages?
By ‘languages’, Malaguzzi means the myriad ways that children express themselves. He means all the different modalities that children use to convey their ideas, experiences and emotions and the myriad ways they make sense of the world.
He’s not talking about language in conventional terms, but rather in a metaphorical sense. The ‘languages’ and the number ‘100’ are symbolic and they represent each child’s uniqueness and each one’s powerful potential and infinite creativity.
This verse of the poem illustrates how the Reggio Emilia celebrates the uniqueness of each child:
The child is made of one hundred.
The child has a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
A hundred…
A basic understanding of the Reggio Emilia approach helps to clarify the concept of these ‘100 languages’.
The principle of Reggio Emilia is basically that the child constructs their own learning. Each child’s innate curiosity inspires them to follow paths of enquiry based on their own interests.
Malaguzzi saw children as explorers and researchers, calling them ‘active constructors of their own intelligence’. Educators, parents and the wider community are seen as co-researchers and collaborators on the child’s educational journey and they construct knowledge together.
Children learn in a variety of ways and they also share their experiences in a variety of ways.
The Reggio Emilia approach believes that children are born with full capabilities for personal and academic development and for building relationships with others. The philosophy also puts communication as the foundation of all learning.
Sensory play is a key feature of Reggio Emilia environments, with the child’s innate sense of wonder leading to infinite possibilities for learning through seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling the world around them.
Children are encouraged to use their talents, their creative energy, their enquiring minds and all the tools at their disposal to explore, discover, learn, grow, share and contribute.
Reggio Emilia environments provide sensory-rich experiences which support a lifetime love of learning. Children have access to a variety of stimulating resources and opportunities which support their self-guided exploration, plus they are also strongly encouraged to share their discoveries with other children and the adults around them.
As mentioned earlier, Reggio Emilia puts communication as the foundation of all learning and the ‘languages’ are children’s modes of expression.
When a child is pursuing a topic of interest or interacting with the world around them and/or with the people around them, they express themselves in a plethora of ways. These ‘languages’ could be anything from traditional verbal communication to dance, movement, pretend play, drawing, sculpting, painting, building structures, reading, writing, taking photographs, using technology, folding paper, threading string - the list is endless.
As children explore ideas and work through problems, they are encouraged to illustrate their understanding using whatever ‘languages’ they feel like using, and also to represent their ideas and their discoveries in a graphic way which can then be displayed around the classroom.
Children have a vast potential to creatively express their unique view of the world and in Reggio Emilia-inspired environments, these are referred to as the ‘100 languages’.
The Reggio Emilia Approach emphasises hands-on discovery learning through play and open-ended projects, and each child is encouraged and supported to use all of their senses and all of their languages (or ways of learning) to learn, express themselves creatively and make sense of the world and their place in it.
Don’t do that, you’ll hurt yourself. Stop before it ends in tears. Walk, don’t run. Slow down, or you’ll fall.
If you’re a parent or caregiver, the chances are that you’ve said these words. Often. That’s because our natural instinct is to protect children from harm, so our default tends to be ‘no’ in order to stop them from doing things that may lead to them getting hurt. But we also know that learning by experience is the best way to learn.
Many of us still have scars on our knees from childhood thrills and spills – some may even have broken a bone along the way - but at what stage does adventurous play become dangerous? Should we be letting our children learn and grow from risky play and if so, how do we set limits that protect them?
One of the most widely-used definitions of adventure play comes from Ellen Beate Hansen Sandseter, a professor at Queen Maud University of Early Childhood Education in Norway, who called it ‘thrilling and exciting forms of physical play that involve uncertainty and a risk of physical injury (Sandseter, 2007).
Is there a reason why children gravitate to the very edge of a lake or steep drop or want to walk along a narrow wall instead of using a path? Why do some children push the boundaries when it comes to going faster, higher, further – and why are they irresistibly drawn to tools and objects that could cause them harm? Why do they wrestle, chase each other around and pretend to fight? Why do they purposely wander away from their caregiver or hide away?
There are perfectly natural reasons that children are drawn to adventurous play – and there are also significant benefits to be gained from it.
Adventurous play helps children learn about themselves, about others and about their place in the world. They develop a sense of self-worth as they start believing in their own abilities and start to trust their decision-making. It can make them feel good about themselves and give their confidence a boost.
Children get a thrill from playing at height and speed, like climbing trees and going fast on their scooters and bikes. They love pushing the boundaries and testing themselves. It may not be comfortable for parents or caregivers to witness, but by participating in ‘risky’ activities, children learn valuable lessons.
Adventurous play:
But it’s not called ‘risky’ play for nothing. The life lessons that come from adventurous play are extremely valuable, but children can – and do – get hurt, so where are the limits?
Sadly, it seems that our appetite for risk is diminishing and that adventurous play is on the decline.
According to a newsletter of the National Quality Standard Professional Learning Programme, our society’s fixation on safety and ‘no risk’ play starts in the early years and continues as children grow older. The article goes on to say that in our desire to ‘keep children safe’, we have created play environments that are devoid of adventure and interest.
That said, there are many ways that we can safely encourage adventurous play and provide children with important learning opportunities. For example, we can play hide and seek with them to encourage a sense of independence. We can let them ride bikes or scooters fast and allow them to climb trees and jump from height. We can let them play rough and tumble games and swing from ropes. Because if we don’t allow our children to test the limits and test themselves, we’re denying them important opportunities to learn a whole range of skills that are essential for a balanced, happy and fulfilling life.
The concept of the environment being the third teacher in an early education environment isn’t new, but it’s an important one to grasp especially in the context of a young child’s learning and development.
The physical environment at school is integral to the learning process.
It aids the child’s development, helps shape their identities and supports their unique path of learning and the development of important life skills.
In simple terms, it means that a well-designed space with lots of quality resources can have a positive impact on a child’s healthy development. It can support and enhance all areas of their early education and by contrast, a poorly designed one can actually detract from a child’s learning and growth.
The environment as the third teacher is a key principle of the Reggio Emilia approach to education, and in fact the term was first coined by the founder of the approach, Loris Malaguzzi. Other educational approaches emphasise the importance of the physical environment in the learning process at early schools and childcare centres, but the Reggio Emilia philosophy takes the concept much deeper.
The child’s surroundings are seen as an excellent medium for enriching every child’s learning experiences and the physical space sits alongside educators and families in helping shape what and how children learn.
All our Evoke Early Learning Centres are inspired by Reggio Emilia and each one offers welcoming indoor and outdoor spaces that encourage exploration, play and learning. You may be interested in this article on the Reggio Emilia philosophy which explains the approach in more detail.
For the environment to function effectively as a teacher, it needs to do the following things:
Young children discover the world around them through multisensory experiences. The tendency of early learning environments is to focus on tactile and visual experiences, but a carefully designed one can stimulate all the child’s senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, hearing and smell.
A quality environment rich in content and choice will be updated and changed regularly, offering fresh opportunities for young children to explore and experiment using their senses (in a safe way of course!) to find and pursue topics that pique their unique interests.
A well-designed environment will support the diverse ways in which they interact with resources and materials – and with one another. The design of the spaces, the choice of resources, the use of natural light, the ability of children to move around freely etc are all key elements of a quality environment which aids and supports each individual’s development.
Careful selection of tools and materials will help a child start to develop key physical and cognitive skills. For example, picking up small objects and learning to control small movements helps with fine motor skills while gross motor skills would be supported by environments where active movements like climbing, jumping, swinging and balancing are encouraged.
Play-based learning is widely acknowledged as the best way for young people to find out about themselves, the world and their place in it.
A quality early learning environment gives children opportunities to explore their imaginations and to test, communicate and share their ideas. The resources and materials provided will support engagement and social interactions and children will learn through collaboration, co-operation and communication.
When a child feels a sense of accomplishment and achievement, it can propel them to explore further. They feel good about themselves and this self-belief is an essential component for their future success.
Feedback is an important channel for helping to improve a child’s self confidence and in an early learning environment, this can be in the form of an activity that has been completed (doing a puzzle, building a tower) and in the form of a child’s work being displayed around the classroom. When a child sees their work documented and displayed in an environment where there is no judgement or expectation, they feel a greater sense of belonging.
You may find that having a broad understanding of the Reggio Emilia approach to early learning helps bring clarity to the concept of the environment as the ‘third teacher’.
In Reggio Emilia inspired environments like ours, teachers don’t ‘impart’ knowledge. We believe that each and every child is born with a unique curiosity and creativity and is a competent, capable and independent learner, directing their own learning according to their own interests. Our teachers, along with the children’s parents, the wider community and the environment, travel alongside the child together on a journey of mutual discovery. We would love to show you around our beautiful environments which have been carefully curated to make each child feel special and which support every child’s unique discovery journey. You’re welcome to book a tour of one of our Evoke Childcare Centres in Clayton or Albert Park to ask any questions you may have. Or find out more about how we operate by reading this article on our Evoke Childcare philosophy.